


pendulum

by determinisms (violentredux)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Dreamscapes, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 11:34:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30071616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violentredux/pseuds/determinisms
Summary: he doesn't bleed. he never bleeds
Relationships: Kageyama Tobio/Kunimi Akira
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	pendulum

**Author's Note:**

> content warning:
> 
> blood

When he comes to, he’s at La Pelosa, chest covered by sheer fabric, water licking up against his stomach. He must be far into the ocean this time, a sliver of sand quivering restlessly far ahead of him.

“Why am I here again?”

Someone flickers behind him. They waver. In and out of time. A pendulum built just for him. He doesn’t have to turn around to know who it is.

“I’m sure you already know the answer to that.”

He blinks. This time, when he opens his eyes, Kunimi’s back is to him, head tilted toward the moon. The sky slips between dark blue and purple, crystal-like, easily shattered. There’s a hammer in the water beside Tobio. There’s a nail pinned to Kunimi’s nape, delicately intertwined with the skin, sinew, skeleton. He doesn’t bleed. He never bleeds.

“Why are you here again?”

Kunimi turns around. He’s dressed in a sweatshirt and sweatpants, a faded 2016 OLYMPICS embroidered above his heart. He looks ethereal. He looks like everything Tobio’s ever wanted.

He reaches behind him and tugs at his neck. Tobio hears a clicking noise. The nail comes out clean, and it’s happened enough times that the tip is starting to dull. He realizes that the body of the nail is comprised of two ribbons curled around each other. How could something so flimsy—so weak—be so sharp?

“Well, do you want to leave or are we just going to stay here?”

Tobio grabs the hammer.

—

This time, they’re on the freeway, Tobio in the driver’s seat, Kunimi in the passenger seat. There’s no wheel—there’s never been one—and the road flies beneath them. The windows are all rolled down, but there’s no wind, and the sky is stagnant above.

“I love you,” Tobio says. To the car. To Kunimi.

“Do you.” It’s not a question.

“If I didn’t—If I didn’t love you then. Then how do you explain—“ He cuts himself off, finding himself forgetting what he wanted to say.

Kunimi hands him a watch without hands, without hour marks. Then, he reaches into his pockets, each hand pulling something out from each pocket. He holds his hands out. In one palm, a circular locket. In the other,

—

Frustrated, Tobio kicks at the sand. “Why don’t you care about me?”

“I do care about you.”

Tobio frowns. “That’s a lie. Why are you lying to me?”

Kunimi smiles that faint, dreamy smile of his. He doesn't say what they both know.

—

They’re on the freeway again, driving backward, Akira in the driver’s seat, Kageyama in the passenger seat. There’s no wheel—they never wanted one—and the road stalls beneath them. The windows are shattered, they already know, and one of them is bleeding again.

“I love you,” Akira says. To the blood. To Kageyama.

“Do you.”

This is a memory, he thinks. It happened once before already, he thinks.

“Why don’t you believe me?”

Akira eats the watch this time, teeth cracking in a wicked pattern along the jaw of the dial, the bezel, the case. When he reaches into his pockets this time, this time, he only finds the locket.

—

Haneda Airport. Two flights booked to Milan. One flight booked to Milan. One flight booked to Milan. Kunimi hands Tobio his ticket. He kisses the edge of the paper, lips smeared across Tobio’s name. He’s crying. He’s smiling. Tobio has never seen him laugh like this before.

Vanilla light, too dim for an airport terminal, swaths Kunimi’s face. Tobio presses his thumb against Kunimi’s bottom lip. Red against white. Blood against rose petals. They kiss.

 _Is this goodbye?_ Tobio thinks dazedly.

Faintly, in the instrumental soundtrack, _Not if you don’t want it to be_.

—

La Pelosa again. Organdy blooms and wraps itself around Kunimi’s shoulders. The water is too shallow to cover up anything this time, nothing to hide their bare legs, nothing to shield them from this intimacy.

Desperately, Kunimi reaches out. “If I say it this time—if I tell you I love you—will you believe me? Will you believe me?”


End file.
